Shedding Skin
by kabukimono
Summary: A ninja without a master is a useless tool. A master without a ninja can always hire another. Character Death.


Authors Note: In year 1615, the Sanada army with the Toyotomi engaged the Tokugawa army at Osaka Castle. Sanada Yukimura, commander, fought bravely but finally exhausted, took off his helmet and allowed one of his enemies to take his head.

This is based off the battle of Osaka Castle. The Date Army did engage the Sanada before Yukimura's death, but in the context of the Sengoku Basara series, Date Masamune would be the one to leave that final strike against Yukimura rather than allowing any one else to kill him.

This fic contains character death.

* * *

A ninja without a master.

What _is_ a ninja without a master, now? A tool without a use will only see its edge dulled with time and disuse until it's brittle with rust. What use is a ninja without his master?

_Master_...

He's too late. Too late to do anything but watch Dokuganryuu Date Masamune walk away from Sanada Yukimura's bloodied form. The Dragon's back is hardly turned before Sasuke reaches the fallen warrior, trusting that Dokuganryuu won't pity him so much as to glance back. Yukimura's hardly alive, just barely conscious - it's only Sasuke's honed senses that alert him to the too-shallow rise and fall of his master's chest.

_If_ Dokuganryuu were to glance back, he'd only see the blood-stained grass that is left behind as Sasuke hurries Yukimura into the shadows.

The few remaining ninja spread the word. Yukimura's alive, but badly wounded. He'll be out of battle for a while yet as his wounds heal. For now he'll continue to give orders to the troops from his bed.

Something, anything to keep up morale in the siege. If only for a few days longer.

Only Sasuke knows the truth as he grimly helps to try to patch the wounds. Sasuke already knows that he's lost too much blood, he's bleeding out in too many places. And the way he's breathing and coughing... blood is filling his lungs, slowly but surely. It's an ugly death, a dishonourable death and were this man not his Master; Sasuke may have found himself letting the warrior have his peace at last.

"Master," Sasuke mutters to break the silence of the medical tent. Even the medic is quiet as they try anything to bring Yukimura from the precipice of death and he jumps at the rough sound of Sasuke's voice, hoarse from his own activity on the battlefield. "Our Lord won't be happy to see you so soon. He's going to have a lot of punishment for you."

Takeda Shingen, dead so long ago. That earns a reaction from Yukimura, a slight furrow of his eyebrows and an upturn in the corner of his lips, almost hidden under the blood. Good. So Yukimura is still with them, even if it's only at the mention of Shingen's name.

"Sarutobi," the medic speaks after another long silence, save for a whine from Yukimura when they press down too hard against his broken ribs in their desperate attempt to save him. "He won't..."

Sasuke's lip bleeds as he bites it hard. He won't last through the night. He might not even last through the hour. "Sanada Yukimura is going to survive." There's no other choice. He cannot die right now, in this battle.

From the moment he'd met Yukimura and come under his service, Sasuke had sworn he would never outlive his master. The small boy that had matured into a strong man had been his reason for living and for working. Without his master, Sarutobi Sasuke is nothing but a ninja for hire, a tool made useless by the absence of the hands that guide it.

The genjutsu is one he knows well - changing his form into the most appropriate one. He doesn't think about it, not even as he moves to complete the illusion, changing his master's form into another. The medic says nothing, only glances away as though to state that he sees nothing, knows nothing except that... Sanada Yukimura will live while his ninja dies.

A ninja without a master is nothing. But a master without his ninja can always hire another.

Yukimura glances down at Sasuke's broken body, smoothes his damp hair back from his face. They're wasting bandages at this point. The longer they keep him from passing, the more he suffers, drawing in one pained breath after the other. It's inhumane to force him to live, when he'd lost that light the same moment their lord had passed on years ago.

"Say hello to Oyakata-sama for me," Yukimura says gently, hopefully loud enough for the man to hear through his haze of pain, as he pulls out a knife - one of Sasuke's knives - from their supplies. It's a mercy kill, draining the rest of Sasuke's blood from his body in one quick blow. Silence.

Silence.

The two men in the tent - Yukimura and the medic - pull a sheet to cover the body of Sarutobi Sasuke. It's just a shell now, empty of the spirit that brought life to it. Though Yukimura doesn't believe - he corrects himself. Though Yukimura has always been willing to face death, his six coins always at his side, he knows that the ninja doesn't hold such beliefs. Even still, he allows the man to keep that necklace at his side. Perhaps it will be of some use to him; Yukimura no longer needs it.

"General," the medic says when Sasuke's body is covered, forgotten. Just a tool that's broken under the pressure. "The men are waiting..." Both of them can hear the soldiers moving restlessly outside of the tent.

"I'm coming," Yukimura replies. His own wounds are severe, but it's nothing that can't be held back with tight bandages and the right medicine. He leaves the medic behind with the body, not sparing another glance toward it.

A ninja without a master, he thinks. _Hah!_ No such thing exists.


End file.
